A few hours later it started dropping bombs in Northern Iraq — not on Isil, but on the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, with which Turkey has been locked in bitter conflict since 1984.

Turkey, and Washington, consider the PKK a terrorist outfit. Confirming Turkey’s Kurd-targeting attacks inside Iraq, the office of the Turkish PM said: “Strikes were carried out on targets of the Daesh [Isil] terror group in Syria and the PKK terror group in Northern Iraq.”

This might sound like a causal official announcement. But it’s actually a morally loaded, and morally warped, statement.

For the conflation of Isil with the PKK — with both depicted as "terror groups” Turkey wants to demolish — suggests there’s a moral equivalence between them; between a barbaric group that seems to have been teleported form the Middle Ages and a Marxist guerrilla outfit that wants to create a Kurdish homeland on Iraqi, Turkish and Syrian territory.

Yet whatever you think of the PKK — whether you agree with Western capitals that brand it terroristic or with Kurds who think it’s a legit army — there’s simply no comparison between these Left-wing militants and the Islamic forces currently plundering, statue-smashing and beheading their way through Syria and Iraq.

Some Western observers say Turkey is only pounding PKK positions, rather than indiscriminately targeting all Kurdish groups in Northern Iraq, and that’s why Western leaders aren’t too worried.

But it’s way more complicated than that. The PKK has close links with the YPG, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units in Syria, who have been among the bravest battlers against Isil.

In the words of Kani Xulam of the American Kurdish Information Network, the YPG, assisted by the PKK, have been allies of the West in the attempt to snuff out Isil — in fact, they’ve been Washington’s "most effective boots on the ground against [Isil]”.

So for Washington to turn a blind eye to Turkish attacks on Kurdish positions in Isil-threatened territory is not only immoral — it’s also really dumb, threatening to rupture links that the West has built up with certain Kurdish forces.

It's unclear whether Washington and other Nato powers — Turkey being a Nato member — actively endorse Turkey's assaults on the Kurds or are simply tolerating them.

Xulam says Washington gave Turkey a “green light" to bomb the PKK in return for its promise to attack Isil too. But according to political scientist Mehmet Ali Tugtan, of Istanbul Bilgi University, Americans haven’t “approved” Turkey’s anti-Kurd crusade — they’re simply “tolerating it … [in return] for continuing Turkish cooperation against [Isil]”.

But whether Western powers are cheering or quietly okaying this anti-Kurd aggression makes little difference. It still adds up to an act of treachery against the people who have done most — more than all our politicians put together — to curb the spread of Isil and halt its imposition of unforgiving, misogynistic, Christophobic rule on even more of the Middle East.

Where members of the Iraqi Army fled at the first whiff of Isil forces, Kurds stood their ground, trained hard, and went to war against Isil, to guard what they consider to be Kurdish territory in Syria and Iraq and also to protect other non-Kurdish communities in the region.

And they won plaudits. John Kerry visited Northern Iraq last year. The Western press sang their praises. And now? Now we watch as they are attacked by a Western ally, and as even their ability to politically express themselves is pummelled: in recent days Turkey has banned 96 Kurdish and left-wing websites.

One of the websites blocked is Rudaw, a Kurdish TV channel I was interviewed for last year. During the interview I said Kurds should be wary of Western support, because it can be fickle. I hate to see I’ve been proved right.

Syrian/Turkish relations: A timeline

Turkey is being dragged further into the four-year conflict in neighbouring Syria following a deadly suicide attack, blamed on Isil, that killed 32 activists near the border.

September 13, 2011

"The Syrian people do not believe al-Assad, I do not either," says Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then premier, a few months after calling the Syrian leader his "friend". Mr Erdogan warns of civil war in Syria.

October 2, 2011

Following a series of meetings in several Turkish cities, Syrian opposition leaders announce the creation of the Syrian National Council (SNC), which groups political factions opposed to the Assad regime.

November 15, 2011

Turkey passes its first sanctions against Syria, and halts joint oil exploration with the country.

June 22, 2012

A Turkish plane that Ankara says was on a training mission in international airspace is shot down by Syrian forces.

May 11, 2013

Twin attacks kill 52 people in Reyhanli, a large Turkish town near the border with Syria.

September 16, 2014

Isil militants attack the Syrian border town of Kobane, and seize parts of it. Kobane becomes the scene of fierce battles.

May 16, 2015

Turkey says it has shot down a Syrian helicopter that violated its airspace.

July 20, 2015

At least 32 people die when a suspected Isil suicide bomber attacks a gathering of activists in the town of Suruc, near the Syrian/Turkish border.

July 22, 2015

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) claims the killing of two Turkish policemen in the border town of Ceylanpinar in revenge for the Suruc massacre.A government spokesman denounces the murders as "a terrorist act perpetrated by a terrorist organisation."

July 23, 2015

Jihadists inside Syria open fire on a Turkish army border post in the Kilis region, killing a non-commissioned officer and wounding two soldiers. In Diyarbakir, a majority Kurdish city in south-eastern Turkey, gunmen kill a Turkish policeman and seriously wound another.

July 24, 2015

Turkish F-16 jets hit Isil targets just inside Syria for the first time, killing nine Isil militants. Late in the day, airstrikes also target PKK militants in northern Iraq.

July 25, 2015

Turkish air strikes intensify against Isil jihadists in Syria and PKK militants in Iraq.

July 26, 2015

Ankara launches F-16 attacks for the third day, striking Kurdish command posts in northern Iraq. Turkish protesters battle security forces in Istanbul, a policeman is shot and killed. Turkey asks for an extraordinary Nato meeting to discuss its cross-border offensive, but has not asked for help, the group's chief says.

July 27, 2015

Turkish tanks pound a Kurdish-held village in northern Syria, wounding at least four fighters and several villagers, Kurdish groups and a Syrian monitor say, while a Turkish official maintains the army is not targeting Syrian Kurds.